The prime aim for our project is to provide fresh water to over 500 school children in a sub-Saharan African school to improve their health and education.

Takitech Primary School is located in Ndanai, a semi urban community in the Western Rift Valley, Kenya. It currently has 569 students enrolled between the ages of 5 and 15. Staff and pupils collect water daily from a dam that is shared with livestock and is highly polluted, losing an hour from each school day to collect water and travel back. Unsurprisingly, drinking contaminated water means that pupils and staff become ill and are absent from school due to contracting water-related diseases and educational opportunity is lost. Also, only a few of the local houses have their own latrines, meaning that the majority of people go to the toilet outside; this in turn contributes to water pollution as rain washes germs in to these already dirty water sources.

An additional challenge is that Takitech School also has no improved sanitation. The current toilets are dilapidated wooden constructions above hand dug pits which are prone to collapse. They are very hard to keep clean and have very limited privacy. The poor condition of the toilets encourages children to go to the toilet outside which is harmful in terms of germ transmission and disease but also makes it extremely difficult to create a child friendly environment in which to learn.

The solution to these problems is straightforward and relatively inexpensive. The Western Rift Valley has high seasonal rainfall which means that if we can trap that rain, clean water can then be used by the school throughout the year. Combined with culturally appropriate hygiene education delivered by trained local teachers, this will bring about sustainable improvements in the children’s health and success at school. We have already installed rainwater harvesting systems like this at other schools in Kenya and the results are amazing. On the video, you can see the system in operation and some of the happy customers receiving fresh water for the first time.

To ensure that Takitech School will have clean water, and improved sanitation facilities will cost just £5,000. I’m asking for your support to help us raise this money to install such a system at Takitech to help give these children a better future and transform their lives.

The project will be implemented by our experienced project partner, Dig Deep (Africa), Charity Registration No. 1148745. You can find out more about Dig Deep by visiting www.digdeep.org.uk.